League is wide open Basketball Round-up

Gavin Cummiskey

The northern conference of the men's Superleague was thrown wide open at the weekend as Killester and MDS Star both lost their unbeaten records. This leaves four teams on level pegging after three rounds.

UCD Marian comfortably beat MDS Star, despite another solid display from John Leahy, who finished with 17 points, 19 rebounds and four assists. However, he was outshone by a 20-point contribution from Marian's Gary Edge.

The all-Dublin affair between St Vincent's and Killester needed two periods of extra time before Vincent's could edge out their opponents on a score of 116-114. Killester's Tory Atchison failed to make two free throws, with 2.5 seconds remaining, gifting the points to his opponents.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame got their first points of the season at the expense of Tolka Rovers on Saturday in a thrilling encounter that finished 96-93.

Rovers put up a spirited late rally that just came up short, when they reduced a 10-point deficit in the final two minutes.

Nothing could separate the sides for most of the match, with Notre Dame finally putting some daylight between them in the final quarter thanks to the accuracy of Ron Burton, who finished on 26 points. However, late scoring from Joey Haastrup almost pulled Rovers back into the contest.

The weekend's results leave Tralee Tigers as the only undefeated Superleague team after they comprehensively beat Limerick 73-56, at home. Despite the 17-point margin of victory, it wasn't until the final quarter of an error-ridden display that they enforced their superiority.

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